Chapter Text
“Anya, bath is ready, hurry up before the water gets cold.” Twilight told the girl who was loafing on the carpet, as she was passing the pages of a big book.
She tussled and rolled her way to the bath. Twilight just looked at her, thinking that it would be less effort to actually walk to the bathroom, but he had just given up on trying to understand what was going on the girl’s mind. He had been a little worried about her having a hard time adjusting to the new babies, but she had become a wonderful older sister, always ready to help and she really seemed to enjoy passing time looking after the babies. Yuri had claimed once that it was all due to Yor’s influence. Twilight couldn’t argue to that, he was just happy that as winter arrived, the peace had remained between the Kingdoms. Thinking about Yuri made him shudder, the young man had come a couple of nights ago with a new challenge:
“Hey Lottie...” Yuri’s cheeks were red because of all the alcohol he had drunk over dinner. He slurred his words and avoided eye contact with Twilight. Yor had gone to put the girls on bed. “When are you going to give my sister another baby!?” The question made Twilight spit the tea he had been drinking. He looked at Yuri with disbelief. Twilight was sure he had misheard. “You heard me right! Don’t you think it’s time to start trying for another child!?”
“The twins don’t even have a year, Yuri.” Twilight still had deep dark circles under his eyes. The babies were just starting to sleep through the night. He and Yor were exhausted, as they also had some assignments from the King or Sherwood every other week. There was no way they were thinking in another child at the moment.
“Excuseees!” Yuri screamed, which prompted an angry Yor to come out of the room, since he had woken up the babies.
Twilight shook his head trying to forget about that night. He started picking up all that was scattered on the floor and the carpet. Nightfall had sent that carpet as a gift to the twins. It was a magical thing that heated or cooled on its own, depending on the temperature around it. Ultimately it was Anya and Bond who were enjoying the most of it. It wasn’t that the twins didn’t like it, but given the chance, they preferred to be in the arms of one of their parents. Twilight wasn’t going to complain about that. Bond was napping happily on the carpet, as Twilight moved the dog to a side to pick up some wooden toys. Then he saw something shiny that had rolled under the bookcase and he got down in fours to get it out. He looked at it with interest, it was a small sphere, very fancy to be a toy. It looked like gold and had some pretty carvings. Besides it, he also retrieved another unknown object, this one looked like a wood board, but there was a weird energy to it. He turned around when he heard the babbling to find the round and happy face of one of the twins that was trying to get to his arms.
“What’s all that?” Yor asked, as she took sit with the other baby on the couch.
“Just found it under the bookcase.” Twilight said, showing her what he had got.
“Oh, I think Yuri had several of those the other night.” Yor said, pointing to the wood board. “Maybe he forgot that one. About the other thing… I think Damian gave it to Anya, she did mention something about that.”
“This is very expensive for a gift.” Twilight said, frowning. “It’s probably better if she returns it. What’s with that face?” He asked, noticing she was trying not to laugh.
“Anya is still very young, you shouldn’t worry about inappropriate gifts yet… but the time will come and you need to think if you’re going to turn all Yuri on her or…”
“All Yuri sounds perfectly fine.” He said, sighing at the giggling of the baby on his arms. She was trying to reach for the shiny ball.
“Talking about Yuri… He wants to gift us a small getaway, to Rheinsberg. He said there is a lake and that we could rest and relax in there.” Yor said in a low voice.
“Did he?” Twilight was even now more suspicious of the young man intentions. “But even if we go in there, I don’t think it will be that relaxing with the company of these young ladies.”
“Well, he is offering to look after them, so we could go… just you and me.” Yor blushed and decided to look at the floor. “B-but if you don’t want to…”
“If you want to go, I’m all in.” Twilight felt his ears burning, it was good that she couldn’t see them.
“D-don’t you think I’m a terrible mother for wanting to take a break?” She asked him and he felt guilty, of course she wasn’t thinking in a romantic getaway.
“I think you’re a wonderful mother.” He replied, no lies.
Two weeks later a carriage that Yuri had provided was parked outside of the Forger house, waiting for Mrs. and Mr. Forger to get ready for their holiday. Yor was giving Yuri a lot of last minute instructions while Yuri was trying to push his sister into the carriage. Twilight was telling Anya that he had already asked the neighbors to stop by every other hour, to check that Yuri had not started any problem. The girl nodded. Then Twilight crouched and told Bond that he was in charge. However, before he could get into the carriage, Yuri called him apart.
“Here, Lottie.” Yuri gave him a dark bottle that contained some sort of potion. “It cost me a lot, but I was able to get it.”
“I don’t …” Twilight tried to refuse, but Yuri put it into his jacket pocket.
“It’s supposed to be 98% effective, so all you have to do is, well, you know.” Yuri pushed Twilight into the carriage, closed the door with a loud bam and sent them away before anything else.
Anya couldn’t follow the thoughts of her uncle. As usual, too much noise related to her Mama, and some sorrow because he had asked something of Papa. Anya shrugged the thought away and went into the house to claim her place on the carpet, she had no intention of doing anything during the weekend, maybe she could force Uncle Yuri into doing her homework instead.
“What’s this?” Yuri asked Anya, after a couple of hours when he had finally managed to feed the twins and clean up the mess he had made. He was looking at the objects that Twilight had found the other day.
“Oh, I don’t know. Sy-on boy gave it to me.” Anya responded without moving a muscle. “He said that someone had found it on the basement or something like that, his brother thinks it belonged to Grandpa. Mina likes to play with it, if she is too fussy you can give it to her.”
“We’re going out.” Yuri announced, storing both items on his pocket.
“Do I have to go?” Anya asked, her plan of slacking the whole weekend was at risk.
“I cannot leave you alone.”
“I can go to Becky’s.”
“Fine, that’ll work.” Yuri nodded.
Yuri had been asked by the King to take the Forger babies to the Cathedral, so that Master Henderson could evaluate their magical powers. Yor and Twilight had refused any kind of evaluation on several occasions. Yuri knew that Yor would be mad when she heard what he had done, but if Anya went to the Blackbells, then she wouldn’t really know. Anya sighed internally, there went her lazy weekend. She couldn’t really think at the moment of a reason to go with Uncle Yuri instead of going with Becky as she had asked to. But everything had a solution, she would just ask Becky to go to the Cathedral so they could keep an eye on Uncle Yuri and his schemes. As soon as Yuri dropped Anya at the Blackbell Manor, Anya informed Becky of the change of plans and the girls quickly went inside to plan their next steps.
Yuri was in a bad mood, the whole thing had him between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t want to do something that would make Yor mad, but the King had ordered him to. He didn’t have an option there. The King had said that it would be better to know as soon as possible the magical affinity of the twins, to protect them in case it was needed. Yuri knew that probably that was the same reason why Yor didn’t want to take the twins to the evaluation. If nobody knew, there was no reason to be afraid for them. And then there was the other request of the King. He could hear his voice as clear as when he had uttered those words.
“We should start looking a fiancee for you.” The King had said without emotion, a day they were rummaging through old parchments at the palace library. “There are already a couple of solicitors that had sent their introduction letters to the Palace. You can look at their portraits or we can summon them to the Palace, but I’d suggest to only summon the one you fancy the most.”
“And if I don’t fancy anyone?” Yuri asked bummed at the whole idea.
“Hahaha, it’s an arranged marriage, of course you won’t fancy anyone. That’s why I said the one you fancy the most.” The King had returned to his usual silly mood.
“Sir, shouldn’t you worry first about yourself?”
“Me? Oh, hahahahaha, of course, someday I’ll have to get married and produce an heir. That’s why it’s only fair if you do it first. Hurry, get married and have a boy that will carry the Briar name.”
“But I’m not even the eldest…”
“I know, someday I’ll fix that so women can become proper heirs. But to do that, I need to surround myself with people of my complete trust.” The King told Yuri, touching his shoulder. “And that’s why I need a Briar heir. I have found some documents and titles that I can return to the Briars to balance the power around here and reduce the Desmond influence. Not that I think the Desmond boys are any kind of danger, but they’re just children.”
“Mmm… if my sister has a boy, could he be considered the Briar heir?”
“Sure, as long as your sister and her husband agree to.” The tone of the King let Yuri knew that was his plan all along.
Yuri knew by now that the King was not someone to underestimate. The King had once told Yuri that he suspected the witching blood from Mama Briar was too strong and any girl born from that bloodline would be a witch. The King also didn’t think the shape-shifting blood from Twilight could be inherited that easily, given all he had lived through. The King would have spent the rest of his life happily studying Twilight if the other man had agreed, but the King knew better than to ask that. So at the moment, he only had theories, theories about Twilight and Anya being the last shape-shifters in Ostania and probably the known world. And since Anya had been born in an unconventional way, there was not guarantee any of her powers would pass to her descendants, if she chose to have any. Yuri puffed a little more as he walked through the Cathedral with those thoughts. The dog walking next to him responded with another noise. Yuri puffed some more. He couldn’t convince the dog to stay at the house, it was as if it had named himself the bodyguard of the babies.
“Welcome.” Master Henderson was already waiting for them, the room was full with all the instruments they were going to use. He had a deep frown, he didn’t agree with the order from the King either, but he was a loyal subject and would do as ordered.
As soon as Yuri picked up the girls and sat them on the table that there was in the center of the room, both of them started to cry inconsolably, startled by the unknown surroundings and the unknown faces all around them. Yuri tried to calm them down, with no success. Then he remembered what Anya had told him and showed them the shiny ball. Master Henderson tried to stop him, but it was too late, the magic inside reacted, making the babies disappear.
“What are you doing here, boys?” Becky asked annoyed to Damian and his lackeys.
“Shut up, Blackbell, you don’t own the Cathedral.” Ewen responded with a rude gesture.
“Let’s go, Becky, we cannot waste time with them.” Anya told Becky and both girls started walking away from them.
“Wait! What are you doing here!?” Damian stopped in front of them. Damian had some assignments at the Cathedral. Demetrius had thought that it was better for Damian to remain busy instead of plunging on his thoughts. Demetrius had talked with Master Henderson, who had agreed to take Damian in some sort of internship/apprentice scheme. Ewen and Emile followed through, and the three of them spent the free time cleaning or organizing some objects of the large collection of the church.
“It’s an ultra-secret mission.” Anya responded teasing the boys. Then she felt something wrong. “Becky! Something terrible happened!” She felt scared and wanted to cry but instead she started running towards Master Henderson office.
The other children ran after her, but she had to stop when she noticed the guards that were running in the same direction. Damian asked them to follow him and he took them through some hidden hallways that were used by the people who worked at the Cathedral. Still, they were unable to really approach the office, it was completely surrounded by guards. The boys looked at each other, hesitantly. Damian looked at Anya and her tears convinced him and he told them that they could use “that”. Ewen and Emile tried to talk Damian out of the idea, but he took Anya’s hand and guided the girl through some small duct. Damian didn’t know what was that used for, the boys had discovered it one afternoon they had finished their assignments and still had free time. Since that day, they had started exploring them and found that they connected a lot of the offices and rooms in the building where Master Henderson’s office was located. They finally reached the office of the man. The children were crouching and could not see what had happened inside, but they could hear the lament coming from Yuri.
“How am I ever going to face my sister again?” He was wailing to himself. He didn’t care about any of the people who were inspecting the room.
“Drink this, boy.” Master Henderson offered Yuri a hot cup of tea, but Yuri just looked at it without really seeing it. “I’ve already sent someone to inform Mr. and Mrs. Forger of what happened, I’m sure they’ll be back as soon as they heard about this. I’ll take full responsibility for this incident, I should have taken much more precautions. After all, no one knows better than myself of the incredible magical ability of Miss Forger, it was only to expect that her sisters would have similar aptitudes.”
“Where are they?” Yuri asked, still in denial.
“Probably some other realm.” Master Henderson responded shaking his head. “That artifact you had with you was used by Master Briar to store magical energy that he would use for much more powerful incantations. He told me once that instead of creating barriers to protect his work, he found it to be more easy to lock his work in some magical space. Those globes were his keys to those magical spaces. I can only guess the girls reacted to that magic and some of the Cathedral magic and activated the passage way towards there.”
“How do I get there? Do you have another of those globes?” Yuri asked desperate.
“I’m sure there must be several of them in the Cathedral, but I do not know their exact location. And I’m afraid that they might not lead to the same place, if we act erratically we might end in a headless chase.”
“Anya said this one came from the Desmonds!” Yuri remembered and quickly jumped to ran towards the Desmond Residence, he didn’t hear anything else of what Master Henderson was trying to tell him.
“Are you okay?” Damian asked Anya, who had frozen after understanding what had happened. Her little sisters had been transported somewhere far away and they had no idea where. But she had heard the last part of what Master Henderson had said, it seemed Bond had disappeared as well, so he had to be with them. And Anya should be able to find Bond.
“Come Sy-on boy, we need to find another key.”
“It’s so pretty!” Yor exclaimed with amazement as she saw the lake through the balcony of their room. Yuri had arranged for them to stay in a very fancy Villa that was used by the Royal Family.
“Very pretty.” Twilight said, looking at her. Seeing her happy was all he needed.
“Do you know what I want to do now? Sleep! I’m going to sleep the whole weekend!” Yor said as she threw herself on the bed. It was so comfy and fluffy.
“Be my guest, I’m going to follow through.” Twilight took seat at the bed and took off his shoes. He lied down on the pillow and closed his eyes. He was so tired, he was sure he would be asleep in two seconds. But the two seconds passed and his brain started to feel more awake. He could hear the birds chirping outside and thought that it was kind of annoying for someone who wanted to sleep so badly. Then he could also hear the voices of people on the lake and thought that perhaps it would be better to close the balcony. So he got up and close it, closing the curtains as well so the room would be darker. Then he lied down again. Five minutes later he was still wide awake.
“I cannot sleep.” Yor complained next to him. “And I’m very very tired, I don’t think I could be more tired, but I cannot sleep!” She wept.
“I know.” He sighed but opened his eyes when he felt her clinging to his arm. “Yor?”
“I want to sleep so badly… but I cannot stop thinking about my babies and Anya and Bond, what if something happens to them? Do you think we should return?”
“Try to relax, they’re with Yuri, what could go wrong? Here, maybe some alcohol will help you to sleep.” He opened a bottle of wine that there was in the room and filled two glasses.
“Is this what we are looking for?” Becky asked, showing Anya some round stuff, but it wasn’t. It didn’t have the same energy. Anya denied with a movement of her head and she continued looking into the box she was going through.
They had gone to the forbidden section of the library. Ewen reminded having seen a small chest with several of those shiny spheres in a large box when they had been in the forbidden section during their last adventure. The main problem was that there was always movement in the Cathedral and the things were moved and rearranged all the time. So even if Ewen could remember perfectly well where it was that he had seen the chest, most likely by now it would be in a different place. Damian and Emile had climbed a very large stair to look into some boxes that had been put above the bookcases, but they weren’t able to find anything either. Overall, Anya knew there was something there, she could feel the faint trace of the magic. She wished she would have listened to Papa when he explained her how to trace magic. But it was funnier to see how Bond was trying to catch a fly and all she could remember was some yadda yadda coming from Papa.
She was sad, she felt as if she had failed to protect her sisters. They were very small and could not do anything on their own, and now they were alone who knows where. She felt like crying again, and as she was trying to calm herself down, something hit her on the head. Emile had slipped a little on the stair and had hit something on the bookcase and a small thing had fallen. As Anya looked above to complain she saw something shining and called the boys, who quickly found the small chest. They went down happily, it contained at least ten of those shiny spheres. Now they just need to figure out how to activate them and then how to control them to go to different places. They gulped, well, at least they had several chances. Anya took a deep breath and then took one of the keys, but as she was going to activate her magic, a large hand took her by the shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?” Yuri was gasping for air, Anya had no idea how is that he had gone and come from the Desmond Residence that fast.
“Uncle Yuri! I’m going to save my sisters.” She said stubbornly, she started to feel mad, it was all Uncle Yuri’s fault, he had no right to stop her. She closed her eyes to focus her magic.
“Wait!” Yuri panicked. “Let me do it.” He took off the key from her hand and with some small and precise magical manipulation he created a door at the closest book case. “It’s still not complete.” Yuri hesitated. “It has no destination set.” He explained. “I was hoping you could help me to set it to the correct place.”
He explained to Anya what to do to trace her sisters or Bond, as he helped her to control her magic until she got the faint trace of Bond. Then he started to use his magic to set the door towards that place. Once all was done, they opened the door. It was all foggy inside and it was not possible to see what was at the other side.
“I’m going in, if I don’t return tell your parents what we did so they can set up another door.” Yuri told her.
“I’m also going!” Anya replied.
“I cannot let anything bad also happen to you.” Yuri said remorseful.
“If you allow me.” Becky interrupted them. “You’re very useless in your current state, Mr. Yuri.” She said savagely. “If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be in this problem and you even needed Anya to help you with this door, what makes you believe you’re going to be able to do anything on your own in there. If you ask me, you’re only trying to escape the rage from Mr. and Mrs. Forger.”
“I’m not!” Yuri responded horrified, it was as if the girl could read his mind.
“So what’s your plan? Just enter there and wander aimlessly?” Becky pushed.
“As if a kid could have a better plan!” Yuri puffed angrily. But it was working, whatever that girl was doing to him was calming his brain and letting him see that he indeed had no plan.
“I have.” Becky showed them a golden thread that she had found. “For starters, we’re going to use this to be able to come back. We just need to tie it to somewhere around here.” She looked around and ran towards a large mirror where she tied the thread. “Now, Damian, write a note for Mr. and Mrs. Forger so they know what we’re doing.”
“Why me!?” Damian bickered.
“Just do it!” Becky replied in a tone that give no space so Damian started writing the note.
“What else?” Yuri asked her, that Blackbell girl had a good head on her shoulders.
“We split!” Anya said confidently, she had grabbed another golden thread and did as Becky. “I have this feeling that we have to split.” She told everybody so no one could argue with her.
“Maybe they got separated…” Yuri thought. “All right, we cannot wait anymore. Team A is…”
“Anya!” Anya said rising her hand and then pointing the rest. “Sy-on boy! Lackey one!”
“I have a name!” Emile complained.
“Team B is Becky, uncle and lackey two!” Anya said, earning the same response from Ewen.
“Come on boys, I’m in charge!” Becky claimed as they crossed through the door.
Once they were in the other side, they found themselves in what looked like some fields on the top of a mountain. There were some trees far away and a sweet scent filled the place. It appeared to be daylight, but it was dimmer than in their human world. It wasn’t either the realm of the no-beings, that was pretty noticeable. The magic in this place felt different, sweet. They walked using a path that crossed those fields, until they found a crossroads. As Anya had predicted, there were two routes ahead of them. Since they had decided in advance, they split and each group took one of the paths. The road that Anya took started to descend and the greenery was soon full of flowers of very different aspect to what they were used to. It was like if they had a thousand petals and they had different colors all at once. It also seemed like they talked to each other and were looking at the children with interest.
“Excuse me, Miss Flower, have you seen my sisters? They’re this small and there is also my dog Bond, that can be any size and is white like…” She turned around, but there wasn’t anything white, everything was multi color in that place.
“What are you doing?” Damian asked, thinking that she had lost her mind. But the flowers turned as if they were talking between them. Then one of them grew bigger and using a leaf, pointed towards someplace to the right of the road.
“Thanks!” Anya said as she started running to the place the flower had told her.
“Waaait!” Damian was running behind her. “Are you really going to believe what they said just like that?”
“Why not?”
“They could be evil.” Emile said, catching up with them.
“I don’t know of any evil flower.” Anya said, thinking about it.
“My mother used to have some.” Damian said gloomily.
“It’ll be fine, I can feel it.” Anya said and started running again.
Meanwhile, the road that team Becky took started to climb and the greenery became scarce. The sweet smell disappeared as the trees turned all branches with no leaves. Eventually they reached a small gray town, full of little gray houses where gray people lived. The people from town looked at them with a mix of fear and interest, finally an old man approached them and they learned of the difficulties of the townspeople.
“There is an evil witch that terrorize the region.” The old man complained. “We haven’t had a moment of peace since she appeared.”
“What is that?” Yuri asked, pointing to a large chimney, the architecture style was completely different from the rest of the town.
“It was our last hope.” An old lady said, coming to them. “The King gifted it to us, since the land around the town is not good to grow things.” She showed them a gray round thing. “We don’t know if this is a potato or a turnip, all we try to grow around here becomes like this. It doesn’t even taste like anything.”
“It was supposed to be a magic refinery.” The old man explained. “There used to be a ton of shooting stars falling over that hill.” He said, pointing to a small hill that could be seen from the town. It was in the same direction as the chimney. “We would collect them and bring them to the refinery, in there they were transformed into talismans and charms that we could later sell, but there hadn’t been a single shooting star in years… And the refinery stopped working, we don’t know how to fix it.”
“What happened to the King?” Yuri found it odd that if their King had provided them with the refinery, he hadn’t follow through with their current problems.
“It was all the fault of the witch!” The old woman said. “She broke something in the refinery and she cut off us from the King! She released an awful beast that is blocking the road to the Castle, it is impossible for us to go! Maybe you can help us, young man.” There was a strange glow in the eyes of the woman that made Yuri uncomfortable.
The old man and woman took them to the refinery. Yuri instructed Becky and Emile to stay with the old people as he went to investigate, he had to jump into a flooded section. It seemed the shooting stars were transported downhill using a small river and this supposed evil witch had caused a flooding that broke something. He wasn’t sure he could fix anything, but at least he could create an opening to let all that stinky water out of the refinery.
“Do you also know how to use magic, children?” The old woman asked Becky and Emile, as they saw from above how Yuri was cursing once he hit the water.
“We’re learning.” Ewen responded proudly. “Master Henderson just said the other day that I had improved a lot.”
“Do you know how to use it, Madame?” Becky asked, she wondered why no one had tried to even fix that place before.
“Oh, no, none of us know how to use it.” The old man responded quickly, putting himself between the old lady and the children.
“What is that?” Becky asked, seeing a lever that in her eyes appeared to have glow for an instant. She pushed it and was surprised because it moved very easily. They heard a clunk and then a clank of some chain mechanism moving.
“What are you doing up there?” Yuri asked when he felt the water starting to move, dragging him in the process. They just heard him yell as the water drained through the sluice gate that Becky had opened.
“Oh, who could have guessed we had such a thing in here?” The old man said, Becky couldn’t really say if he was lying or not, but she thought it was very suspicious that no one knew of the sluice gate.
“Come, Ewen.” Becky grabbed the boy by the arm and tried to exit the building, but the old lady blocked their way extending her arms as much as she could. The old man quickly stood behind them, moving his cane in a menacing way. “Move!” Becky commanded while she made the wall next to her explode and used the confusion to slip away as she kept pulling Ewen. She decided to jump into the water below, at least they would end up whenever Anya’s uncle was.
“You’re crazy!” Ewen complained, as they were still floating downstream. The water had torn down several trees that had been growing in the dry river bed and they were currently holding onto of them. The current was not really strong as it had been when Yuri was dragged outside and they could only see how the people of the town looked at them with disappointed eyes. “But it is weird, you know?”
“Of course I know! It is very weird that those old people know nothing about their own factory! Papa knows everything about ours!” The Blackbell family owned a similar refinery back in Ostania, but they specialized in creating explosive artifacts.
“Oh, I didn’t mean that, I was thinking that it is weird that the water is still flowing, I wouldn’t think there was this much water in the refinery.” The boy added that the flow felt constant and there was a faint magic trace in the water. “Maybe there was a magic circle to transport all this water in here. I think the sluice gate worked as a seal.”
“Mmm… it could be, I felt something on that lever, that’s why I pulled it.” Becky admitted.
“You need to put more attention to Master Henderson, he always is telling us to be wary of unknown objects that emit magic.” Ewen said in a chastening voice. “H-hey, don’t you think we’re moving faster?” He asked with terrified eyes, the current was accelerating and he could hear as well a big noise ahead of them.
“A waterfall!?” Becky guessed, hearing the same noise, they looked at each other, none of them were good enough swimmers to try to get out of that by pure physical effort and none of their magics were either useful at the situation. “M-maybe if I made this trunk explode we could jump over the waterfall…”
“What difference would it make!? We would still fall all the way down!” Ewen screamed as the noise was getting louder.
“At least I’m thinking in something!? What does your magic does anyway!?” Becky asked exasperated.
They found themselves suddenly above the water level, a small dam created with mud and trees below them. They hurried towards the river shore, the water looked more dangerous as it hit with strength the dam and started to accumulate, it wouldn’t last long. They made it barely on time and found Yuri lying down on the muddy shore. What they didn’t expect to find was the strange old lady that was clinging to Yuri’s head.
“I cannot believe it! She is the cutest, smallest and roundest old lady I’ve ever seen!” Becky said as she approached the old lady and hugged her as if she was a doll.
“Is it okay to be close to her?” Ewen asked suspicious.
“Didn’t I said that she was the cutest?” Becky showed him the wrinkled face. Her eyes appeared as if they were closed because of the many wrinkles on her eyelids.
“Stop the noise, my head hurts.” Yuri complained as he started to stand up.
The sun disappeared behind a large shadow, the three of them looked at the sky as the old lady started to make noises as if she was scared. They didn’t expect to see that, a strange large beast was just in front of them and growled angrily before expanding a large set of wings. Yuri took the children and the old lady and started running away but he knew they had no chance, a single stride of the beast would put it ahead of them and the only way out was down the waterfall. What he didn’t expect was for the beast to growl once again and use its breath as an attack that sent them down.
“Aaa-aaaa!” The old lady screamed as they fell down.
“Siiiiiis!” Yuri screamed after her, thinking how easy everything was when Yor took care of him. Before they reached the ground the whole place was filled with a bright light that blinded them for some seconds.
“I want to see it.” Yor pouted as she hiccuped, Twilight was regretting suggesting the alcohol. In her search for more alcohol she had found the bottle that Yuri had given him and quickly recognized the substance.
“You’re too drunk, try to sleep.” He guided her to the bed, but with a strong movement, she threw him over the sheets and placed herself on top.
“I don’t want to sleep, I want to see it.” She took his face between her hands, squeezing it.
“I cannot do it.” He tried to lie his way out, but she squeezed harder. “Fine, but it will be only a few seconds, it’s really advanced and I cannot keep that form for too long.” He sighed, he should have thrown that potion away. But before he could try anything, they were surrounded by a bright light.
Becky didn’t know how is that they survived at first, but it seemed they had landed in a large mushroom that was all puffy. Ewen looked at her flabbergasted and pointed to the young boy who was cursing while trying to walk while the old lady kept climbing to his back. There was no doubt that small kid was Yuri Briar, probably the same age as them.